Smokin Oslo: How to (Kinda) Do Oslo in 1 Day

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Oslo was smokin. Literally. I mean, it’s like – the smell of cigarette is just… everywhere… I wasn’t expecting that. But other than that, it’s sunny blue sky here in the northern hemisphere. It’s almost unbelievable how gorgeous the people are here. I mean – dude, why are you wiping the street? You could be a movie star in Indonesia!! Guys or gals, with their blonde hair, blue eyes, slim tall figure and just the perfect small pointy nose – looks like they just walked out of a magazine. Of course, beauty is in the eyes of the beholder. But come on. We all know it. There are certain stereotypes of what “beauty” looks like. And the Norwegians seemed to tick almost all the marks. M couldn’t agree more.

Arriving to the city is not as straightforward as I thought. The connection in Helsinki was so short (a little less than 1 hour) – not to mention the immigration officer was questioning me a lot due to my Indonesian passport. Lucky M with his shiny Australian passport. I literally had to show my hotel bookings, train tickets, plane tickets etc before he let me go. The officer chuckles a bit when seeing the piles of papers and only said… “Errr, wow you have quite a lot of planes and trains to take”. I’m like – yeah, tell me about it ha ha… When we finally boarded the plane – we were the last 2 people before the plane door closed. Seemed like just waiting us.

Even when I eventually arrived at Oslo airport, I almost missed the 90 NOK NSB train; as the 170 NOK Flytoget train ticket machines are more prominent. Lucky I had researched before; so I knew roughly what are the options. After finally figuring out which one is the right platform (asked 3 people before finally gave up and queue to ask the lady behind the ticket counter again) – I’m in awe of the fact that no one even checked the ticket! Dishonest people could just take the train and ride for free. My Comfort Xpress hotel is for some reason not accommodating pre-check in luggage storage; so I put my bag in M’s hostel first. M grab his daily dose of coffee while I gobbled a “Borek” (which is a Turkish feta cheese spinach lasagna kinda thing) from Café de Luca (which seems to be quite famous as it was quite filled with people). Price was around 34 NOK.

I had some printed walking routes from few travel books; but it’s difficult to stay focus when you see interesting things around the corner. Eventually roamed around and play by the eye. See something interesting? Walk there. I took pictures even though I don’t even know what building that is. I kept saying to myself “Oh, I think this is famous” ha ha…

But even with the random approach, I somehow made it to in front of the Parliament Building & Grand Hotel. It reminds me glimpse of Dennis Callan tour videos (it’s one of the resources that I use for my travel research) – his tour group stayed at Grand Hotel (which looks expensive considering the location). I walked further and saw restaurant/cafe chains like TGI Friday, Hard Rock Café, etc. I noticed so many people brought cute dogs even to shops, restaurants, and metro.

One interesting thing is there's sooo many people just jay walked in Oslo! Now I realized how "obedient" Singaporeans are. The pedestrian traffic light even has 2 red lights and only 1 green. Seriously! Is it because their people jay walked so much? Dunno. But it's really funny ha ha... Originally I thought it's the same setup for cars - but the car traffic lights are normal (just red/yellow/green).

It was a bright blue sky day in Oslo – so many people lounging around on the grass in the park nearby. The birds are huge here btw! I think no one try to fetch them or something, cause they don’t look scared at all. Few birds have number tagged in their leg, dunno what they mean. We walked further to Aker Brygge waterfront. I didn’t go inside the mall, but just walk along the waterfront. Amazed by the ships docked in the marina – wow some people in this world are fortuned enough to have such expensive toys. Lots of places selling ice cream and I want some too. For value for money choice – I dropped by one of the small minimarts and buy a Popsicle. Sitting by the waterfront, with bright blue sky & swipey clouds, enjoying ice cream – ahhh, this is the life…

Walked some more and went to Akerhus Fortress. Got a good panoramic view of the city. Some repair man was using a remote control robot to fix something (was it mowing the lawn or cleaning something? Not sure). The fortress itself was rather humble. Not many fru fru details. Whoever built this must’ve focused on function instead. There was a big apple tree in front the fortress and I’m just tempted to grab one that already fallen from the tree; but decided it wasn’t the brightest idea to risk it.

After that, tried to find the New Oslo Opera House but became too tired. This spontaneous “let’s play by the eye” kinda approach is so not me; and now I remember why. Because it’s NOT EFFICIENT!!! I pretty much circled the Grand Hotel like 3-4 times again; and finally settle just to see the Royal Palace (from outside) & Oslo Cathedral rather than trying to find the Opera House. If I had followed my own walking tour maps – it would’ve been a more concise trip. I felt my energy level dropped so low; as I haven’t had proper meal for 2 days – plus lack of water. I brought an empty bottle but there’s no water fountains anywhere. Towards the end of day, I committed a traveler sin that I previously vowed not to do. I bought a bottle of mineral water from Narvesen (like 7-11) for 26 NOK – which is like super expensive. Gah. Oh well, it was either that or risking to faint in the middle of the street. With so little energy left, I still managed to get excited when seeing a small fresh produce market in front of Oslo Cathedral. For some reasons I always enjoy taking pictures in markets. Probably saw too much travel & food magazines.

We decided to take few hours break, go back to our individual hotels, check in, shower, rest… After that we joint up again and M managed to find that New Opera House with his GPS. Apparently it’s just behind the train station. Took pictures there & enjoy the sunset (although it wasn’t that spectacular). Afterwards we ate at Café Cathedral right at the heart of Karls Johan’s Gate street. My heart sank to pay the almost 250 NOK scampi salad. Since then we always eat away from the heart of the touristy places.

Overall I felt like I got a good feel of Oslo as a city. At least I tick marked almost all the attractions that I planned to visit. I’m very thankful for the sunny blue sky. It helps to lift up your mood for sure. There’s one gap – which is the Vigeland park. We’ll visit it tomorrow, should be easier to get there with our rented car. I hope it’s another blue sky day.

To view more of my Norway pics - click here

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